Are germs spread by someone licking their fingers to separate papers?

My co-worker constantly licks her fingers to separate pages. Everything she touches, I also have to touch. I find this practice disgusting. Can her germs be spread to me in this manner, since I have to handle the pages also? Am I wrong to worry about this?

Yeah, there was a story where such a habit was used to kill a guy by applying some poison at the corners of pages. That means you too lick your fingers while turning pages. So unless you too lick it the germs will stay on the paper.

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Gorjess writes in myLot

Gorjess (974) ranked 1,379 out of 34,226 in people

I hate it when people do this. Ever since working in retail and coming face to face with many people a day I've learned what horrible habits people have! People who lick their fingers nearly always do it when they don't need to. They will lick their fingers to open a carrier bag, but if they'd looked, they'd see I'd already opened it. They lick their fingers to get a credit card out of their wallet, how does this make sense? Surely this would make it harder to pull a shiny card out? They will lick their fingers and give me the spit covered money and expect me to say thank you! They will hold their card in their mouth then take it out and pass it to me, as if they are a baby.. They will hold a note between their teeth and then pass it to me.

I am sick of it, I think it is such bad manners. People spread so many germs by licking their fingers. One customer even licked his fingers then entered a pin on the machine, why was this needed? People who lick their fingers mainly do it because it's their habit. I think it is a bad habit.

My fingers get so dirty at work there is no way I will lick my fingers, I never do it anyway. Someone at my work did it once and a customer complained, no doubt this customer licks their fingers too..

Are you a finger licker?

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Dr. Flash Gordon writes in a CNN Health Q&A article:

If you then touch the corner of your eye, or lick your finger before turning a page, or open and unwrap a piece of chewing gum and eat it, you've just put those germs into your system. If you don't wash your hands after touching "public objects" and before touching your face or food, you've essentially licked everything you've touched since the last time you washed.

Click here for link to the article.

Tim writes in his Retail Blog

Today I had a few spitters. They're actually fairly common; you may be one yourself. It's the people who lick their thumb or finger to separate two pieces of paper. This one woman was having trouble separating the credit card receipt after signing it so she stuck her thumb in her mouth and slicked it up with about an ounce of saliva. Then she used it to separate the two pieces of paper and, oblivious to the look of horror on my face, tried to hand me the store copy. No offense to anyone who does it but I'm not down with someone handing me their sopping wet receipt to file. It seems even worse to do it to money. I'll be standing there waiting for someone to count off a few bills from their wallet and suddenly the finger darts to the tongue, then back to the cash. Haven't they heard that four out of five bills have traces of cocaine, urine or feces on them? Small amounts to be sure, but I'm still not down with the moist art of the Finger-licking Paper-separation Maneuver.

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Josh L. posts in his blog, Daily Encounters with the World

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Dirty Money + Licking your fingers = Unhappy person receiving your money

Do you lick your fingers while you eat? Personally I do and watching other people do so doesn't bother me whatsoever. What does bother me is when people are about to give me some money and they lick their fingers to separate the bills. Do they not realize that I have to touch that money? I know money is dirty anyways, but to add somebody else's saliva is a whole new story. Maybe you've never thought about this before, but after reading this little post you may be surprised at how many people actually do this. If you're one of these people that lick your fingers to separate money or turn pages in a magazine or book please do the world a favor and STOP!

Click link to his blog post

Link: http://nancypearlwannabe.com/blog/?p=521

Posted on Nancy Pearl Wannabe

I’m pretty certain that if a zombie apocalypse ever occured, it would begin with some sick fool deciding he absolutely must go in to work that day even though he felt (quite literally) like death. So this sick dope would drive to his office because, god knows, those spreadsheets don’t type themselves, and the next thing you know he’s biting a co-worker’s face off. It’s all downhill from there, really. At the end of the day all the zombies at the office would head home for dinner, inevitably biting everyone else they encountered on the way, until I’m the only one left running for the nearest Wal-Mart so I can shoot those damn fool zombies.

How do I know this? Because my co-workers do it all the time. Maybe it’s not the Rage virus that they’re spreading, but do you think I want that flu, or cold, or fever, or stomach bug? No, I do not. Please keep your nasty sick self home, co-workers, and if you absolutely MUST come in to school, please stay the hell out of my office. Please and thank you.

Actually, scratch that. There is no reason that anyone MUST come in to school after throwing up all night. The children will be just fine if they learn what an adverb is tomorrow rather than today, and even better, I won’t spend the night puking my guts out after you breathed your germs down my neck. And you know what? If you’re a substitute teacher? I should have the right to punch you in the throat if you come in to school sick. You are supposed to fill in for the sick, not create more of them.

The stupid old man substitute- the one with the lisp and the penchant for asking me questions that cause me to wonder how he found his way to the school at all- is currently sitting at a table in my library, wheezing so badly I don’t know how he hasn’t passed out. He has one of those deep coughs that boom out of your chest and sound like they come straight from the depths of your diaphragm. And at the end of each cough he punctuates it with a whine, like he’s in terrible pain, and you know I might almost feel sorry for him if I wasn’t so pissed that he’s out there coughing his nastiness into my space. Stay home, dude. Or next time I might just pretend you have the Rage virus anyway, just so I can be rid of that coughing noise.
Comments

17 Responses to “Someone Call a Doctor”

1. RA on January 3rd, 2008 8:11 am

Gross. At my husband’s school, the teachers take sick days at the drop of a hat, thank goodness. Their administrators apparently promote some sort of preventative maintenance idea in exchange for being jerks, but at least it helps cut back on the contagion.

Is wearing a mask over your nose/mouth unprofessional? Or squirting people with Purell?

2. Jess on January 3rd, 2008 8:12 am

I can only think of two reasons why people come to work when they’re sick. One is that they don’t have any sick or vacation time to use, which is really the fault of the employer for not adequately accommodating the human needs of their employees, unless it’s an extreme case. The other is an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance. I think the latter is the issue more often.

3. npw on January 3rd, 2008 8:18 am

RA- That is the best idea ever. I am going out this afternoon to buy a squirt gun and I am filling it with Purell.

Jess: Yes, it’s definitely the latter. We get 20 sick days a year, they’re certainly not stingy with them.

4. mickey on January 3rd, 2008 8:34 am

Word. People around here come into work sick and then insist on licking their fingers before they touch the papers they are about to hand to me. This pisses me off when they’re healthy let alone carrying some nasty contagion in their saliva! F!

5. 3carnations on January 3rd, 2008 9:48 am

Well…I haven’t been sick enough to feel the need to use a sick day for myself in about 3 years, and that was from a very painful corneal ulcer. It hurt to keep that eye open. Have I had some colds? Yep. Do they prevent me from working? Nope. Really, with most viruses you are most contagious before you have that first sneeze. That’s the first reason I don’t call in - I feel well enough to work. I don’t need to be at home to cough and sneeze. I cover my mouth appropriately and wash my hands very frequently.

Second reason - Office politics. Who needs 85 dirty looks the next day when you called in and really could have worked anyway. If I felt THAT bad I would stay home, but if I don’t, I won’t. And I seldom do.

Third reason - While I have adequate supply of sick time, I prefer to reserve it for time my son needs to stay home. But even he doesn’t have to (or want to) stay home because he has a cough or sneeze. He generally feels well enough to play, and daycare dictates that vomiting or a fever are the only reason a child NEEDS to be home (other than Chicken Pox or something like that). Coughing and sneezing ailments are out there all the time. We won’t keep them away by staying home. Look at any daycare - Half the kids have a runny nose at any given time. If all those kids stayed home for a runny nose, no one would ever be able to go anywhere.

Sorry for the dissenting opinion here…I just cover my mouth/nose, wash my hands, and keep my germs to myself the best I can.

6. 3carnations on January 3rd, 2008 9:49 am

Oh, and the finger licking before turning pages - That grosses me out! It’s so unnecessary, too. If you’re having trouble separating the pages, just give it a few seconds…They will separate!

7. Noelle on January 3rd, 2008 9:55 am

We’re all kind of ticked at work right now because a co-worker has taken sick days every day this year. After he took some random vacation during the holidays, that is. But then again, I’m so happy to have him gone rather than wheezing his way through the day and asking me where his excel documents went to. And yes, the Purell, it sits here next to my phone and is getting quite a workout.

8. Erikka on January 3rd, 2008 10:05 am

do i hear the beginnings of a zombie movie/story/novella here?

9. Michelle on January 3rd, 2008 10:27 am

PRAISE THE LIZ-ORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NPW, you rocked my socks right off with this one! I’m nodding along while reading, as though I’m one of those damn bobble head dolls.

But bobble head dolls don’t GET sick. Bastards.

10. Michelle and the City on January 3rd, 2008 11:09 am

ok this post had me laughing from beginning to end. i was picturing a ’shaun of the dead’ moment at your school. ever seen that movie? freakin hilarious.

11. courtney on January 3rd, 2008 12:32 pm

Just start wearing a surgical mask all the time. People will get the picture. Maybe you can even get the kids to start wearing them too.

12. Kate on January 3rd, 2008 12:51 pm

A lot of medical offices have notices outside that if you are sick and want to come in, you have to wear a mask and wash your hands. Perhaps you can set up a hand sanitizing station and buy some masks to put outside the library?

13. Kiraa on January 3rd, 2008 1:04 pm

OMG! For serious, right? Nothing is so important that you can’t just GO HOME and die quietly. Kthx.

14. rye on January 3rd, 2008 1:45 pm

Eww. Sick people are gross. Hope you don’t catch it! I would start sucking on some vitamin C just in case.

15. Aaron on January 3rd, 2008 3:29 pm

I completely zoned out after “zombie apocalypse”. God, I fucking love zombie movies.

Speaking of which, I really need to do my “Birthday of the Dead” rewrite so I can include your character. Then kill her off spectacularly.

16. Stefanie on January 3rd, 2008 7:06 pm

That first paragraph beats all of the ridiculous theories my overactive imagination has churned up, hands down. I love the way your mind works, NPW.

17. npw on January 4th, 2008 7:02 am

mickey: Umm, eww. Maybe you should start licking all the paper first so that they won’t touch it at all.

3cs: At least you’re considerate of your fellow co-workers!

Noelle: Yeah, I would rather have people out sick all the time than get their airborne illness. Of course, people being out usually doesn’t affect my work at all, so…

erikka: mayhap!

Michelle: Seriously- in schools it’s the worst because the kids AND the adults are sneezing all over you. Gross.

MatC: I love me some Shaun of the Dead.

courtney: Hmm. Maybe after I have tenure I can start in with the sick-free school campaign?

Kate: I like it! I’ll have a little handwashing station. Or you know, the Purell squirt gun idea has its merits as well.

Kiraa: Ha! “Die quietly.”

rye: It’s pretty inevitable that I catch something, I suppose.

Aaron: Yeah, maybe once you write me in I’ll actually read it. Ha!

Stefanie: Hee… is it bad that I didn’t even see anything strange about that paragraph until other people pointed it out? I’m glad you enjoy my madness.

Laurie H. writes in her blog How to Survive...

...having a finger licking boss

1 – At the first sign that your boss is licking his/her finger while reading through a newspaper, magazine, PowerPoint deck, notebook or anything else that requires pages being turned, quit. No amount of money, respect, power or future fame is worth working with someone who isn’t capable of turning a piece of paper without licking their finger.

2 – Start licking your finger before you touch every single thing they own. Lick your finger and then pick up a picture of their family they proudly displayed on their desk. Lick your finger and pick up their phone to make a call. Lick your finger and pick up their keychain. Get the point? Maybe, just maybe, you’ll have grossed them out enough that they’ll stop themselves the next time they start to lick their finger.

3 – Make sure to always have a big box of pens in your desk drawer. Finger lickers always seem to have somehow forgotten their pen. Which means they have to borrow yours. Now maybe they haven’t licked their finger immediately before picking up said pen, but the odds are pretty good that they’ve licked their finger in the past 45 seconds. As soon as they leave your desk, throw that pen away and get out a new pen. A spit-free new pen.

4 – If you are unfortunate enough to work for a cheap company that doesn’t keep big boxes of pens in the storage room, hide your pen. That way, when your annoying finger-licking boss forgets his/hers and asks for yours, you can say you can’t find it. Say you think you left it in the conference room/van/art room/breakroom – anywhere that doesn’t happen to be where you are at that exact moment in time.

5 – Fake cough. A lot. If you act like you’re always sick, he/she will not want to touch anything that belongs to you. Perfect.

6 – Pretend that someone else you work with is a finger licker, then talk about them incessantly to your boss. Something like, “[Insert name of co-worker here] is always licking his/her fingers before he/she reads anything. It’s so freaking gross I have to fight the urge to vomit every time I’m in the same room as him/her. I mean seriously, how freaking gross is that? I hate him/her.” Hopefully, we can only hope here, your boss will get the point that finger lickers are disgustingly gross and he/she will stop spreading their saliva around the world instantly.

7 – This one’s a little more overt, but you can hang a sign on your door/cubicle/van door/studio that reads ‘NO FINGER LICKERS’. Then, if he/she licks his/her fingers, you can point to the sign, and then point to the exit. Then, immediately start looking for a new job because you probably just got yourself ‘LAID OFF’.

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Frank C. writes in gather.com

Two weeks ago at a supermarket two streets over from the office where I work, I bought a few items for lunch. The cashier asked me if I wanted my items in a bag. When I told her yes, she licked her fingers and reached for a bag, opened it and put my purchases in the bag.

Last week I went to a sandwich deli near my office and bought a sandwich to go. The guy working there asked me if I wanted my sandwich and chips in a bag. When I said yes, he licked his fingers and reached for a bag, opened it and placed my food inside.

Yesterday I bought some milk and fruit at a convenience shop on the ground floor of the building where I work. You can probably see this coming, but the cashier licked his fingers, opened a bag and filled it with my items.

I'm not germophobic nor do I think I've already become a cantankerous old git. But I'm really sick and tired of people licking their fingers to turn pages, sort paper or-most egregiously-put my food purchases in a bag.

Clink link to his post

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17423422.700-dirty-money.html

From New Scientist Print Edition.

Don't lick your fingers while counting your cash in India. Soiled rupee banknotes are breeding grounds for the bugs that cause tonsillitis, pneumonia and tuberculosis, say scientists at the Regional Sophisticated Instrumentation Centre in Shillong. "The risk is serious. Many notes in India are soiled and held together with bits of sticky tape. These notes are potential killers," says researcher Sudip Dey. The problem is worst in north-eastern India, he says, where notes tend to stay in circulation longer. The central Reserve Bank of India says it is working hard to replace old notes with new ones as quickly as possible.

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Tish Jones writes in NurseWeek News:

One day a supervisor came into the ICU, sat down at a desk, and started leafing through one of my patient’s charts, licking her fingers each time she turned a page.

I told her to stop licking her fingers because she was exposing herself to hospital germs. Plus, I knew that I would be handling the chart, and I didn’t know what kind of germs she had in her mouth — not to mention where she had been before her visit to our unit.

She told me to wash my hands after I handled the chart.

Her suggestion is probably the best solution, because the only person I can control is myself. It’s my responsibility to protect myself. Perhaps we should put charts high on the list of infection transference. In one day, the chart may be touched by many people from many departments — nursing, dietary, physicians, social services, physical therapy, radiology, pharmacy, respiratory, and more.

So the moral of the story is this: You have not given anyone permission to put you at risk. Yet you are at risk. So to all the finger-lickin’ chart page turners, you have a deadly habit. One day this habit may make you pay for the risk that you take. Hopefully you may recognize that you also share in the responsibility for putting the charts high up on the infectious list. Think about it, when was the last time the charts were cleaned on your unit? Were they ever?

Link to the article: